Stable Notes Del Mar, California Friday, August 29, 1997 (Day 33)

DOWTY, RAINBOW DANCER HEAD FIELD OF EIGHT FOR DEL MAR HANDICAP

Escondido Handicap winner Dowty, owned by Allen E. Paulson and trained by Bill Mott and Evergreen Farm's Rainbow Dancer, trained by Jenine Sahadi, top a field of eight heading for Saturday's Grade II, $250,000 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on Del Mar's Jimmy Durante Turf Course. Purse money for the winner of the 58th running of the 'Cap is $150,000.

Dowty will carry high weight of 119, while Rainbow Dancer, who finished fifth in Hollywood Park's Sunset Handicap July 20 following a victory in the Hollywood Turf Handicap May 26, is weighted at 118. Dowty will be ridden by Gary Stevens and Rainbow Dancer draws the saddle services of Del Mar's leading rider Alex Solis.

VETERAN STAKES RUNNERS AND AN UPSTART SET FOR CHULA VISTA 'CAP

A field of eight that includes seven veteran stakes performers and an impressive filly making her stakes debut in the United States will be going postward Sunday in Del Mar's 27th edition of the Grade II, $300,000 Chula Vista Handicap for fillies and mares racing 1 1/16 miles on the main track. The winner's portion of the purse will be $180,000.

Carrying high weight in the race will be 505 Farms' Radu Cool, a plucky 5- year-old who comes into the race off a victory in Del Mar's Bayakoa Stakes July 28. The John Shirreffs trainee will be ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron, who is the seaside track's career leader in stakes victories with 108.

Second top weight of 116 goes to Real Connection, who is winless in 10 races so far this year, but has finished second four times in her last five outings, all in either Grade I or Grade II events. Regular rider Goncalino Almeida will be in the irons for owner Bill M. Thomas and trainer Mel Stute.

Expected to get some special attention from bettors is Janis Whitham's Toda Una Dama, who has won three of her four starts in the U.S. for trainer Ron McAnally, but will tackle American stakes horses for the initial time Sunday. The most recent win came in an August 3 Del Mar allowance race. The meet's leading rider Alex Solis will be in the saddle, as he has been in each of the 4-year-old filly's races in this country.

The only other potential starter coming into the race off a victory is Halo Farms and Jerry Hollendorfer's Traces of Gold, trained by Hollendorfer. The 5-year-old Strike Gold mare was a Del Mar winner in an August 4 allowance race, and apprentice J.G. Matos retains the mount.

The rest of the field: Ronald and Susie Anson's Swoon River, trained by Doug Peterson and ridden by Matt Garcia; Ray T. and Martha G. Parfat's Chile Chatte, trained by Richard Mandella and ridden by Gary Stevens; Herman Sarkowsky's Supercilious, also a Mandella charge who will be ridden by Brice Blanc; and Ocean View, owned by the Thoroughbred Corp. and trained by D. Wayne Lukas. Kent Desormeaux will ride.

DEL MAR HAS SPECIAL OFFERINGS FOR "AMERICA'S DAY AT THE RACES"

Del Mar will be an integral part of the "America's Day at the Races" celebration on Monday, Labor Day. Designed to create a greater interest in Thoroughbred racing, "America's Day" will offer, among other attractions at various racetracks around the country, a "Coast-to-Coast Triple," a national "Pick Three" in which fans can wager on three races at three tracks.

The 52nd running of the Grade II, $300,000 Del Mar Derby will serve as the third race in the Triple. It will be preceded by Monmouth Park's Miss Woodford Stakes and Arlington International's Springfield Stakes. A special feature of the "Coast-to-Coast Triple" will be a takeout reduced to 10 per cent, from the normal near-20 per cent taken out of exotic wagers. All three races will be televised on ESPN2 from 2 to 2:30 p.m.

One of the day's biggest attractions at the seaside course will be a parade of equine stars headed by Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Silver Charm, owned by Robert and Beverly Lewis of Newport Beach and trained by Bob Baffert. The handsome gray son of Silver Buck won last year's Del Mar Futurity and has been stabled in the Baffert barn here since his Triple Crown campaign, which ended with a second-place finish in the Belmont Stakes. The parade will follow the sixth race of the day.

Del Mar's first post time on Monday will be 12:30 p.m. instead of the normal 2 p.m., and Del Mar Derby will be run as the day's fourth race at 2:20. Gates open that morning at 10:30.

Other attractions on the day include racing displays, racing booths, a starting gate exhibit, T-shirt tosses by jockeys into the crowd before each race, the third of three jockey photo days over the weekend and a book signing by Pierre "Peb" Bellocq, racing's premier cartoonist, between 12:30 and 1:45 p.m.

HOFMANS' TOUCH GOLD TRAINING TOWARD PEGASUS AT MEADOWLANDS

Trainer David Hofmans reported this morning that his Belmont Stakes and Haskell Invitational winner Touch Gold is back in serious training after another hoof setback that caused his withdrawal from Saratoga's Travers Stakes last Saturday, and will be pointed toward the $1-million Pegasus Handicap at The Meadowlands in New Jersey September 20.

Hofmans said, also, that Northern Afleet, winner of Del Mar's San Diego Handicap July 26, will run next in the Grade II, $200,000-added Del Mar Breeders' Cup Handicap September 7. The ultimate goal for the horse, Hofmans said, is the Breeders' Cup Sprint on November 8 at Hollywood Park after a run in the Grade I Vosburgh Handicap at Belmont Park September 27.

CHURCHLAND, AN EARLY DEL MAR DERBY PROSPECT, IS ON THE MEND

Churchland, winner of the second division of the Oceanside Stakes for 3- year-olds with potential for running in the Del Mar Derby, is on the mend from a quarter crack in his left front foot, but won't be racing again this season at Del Mar.

Trainer Richard Cross said the colt owned by Prestonwood Farm is training with a patch on his foot, and the conditioner hopes the Oak Tree Derby is in his future. The quarter crack, Cross said, followed a sick spell for the English-bred following the Oceanside. The combination resulted in several missed training days and set the colt back to where he wasn't able to be raced in the Del Mar Derby.

Fantastic Fellow, owned by the Thoroughbred Corp. and trained by D. Wayne Lukas, won the first division of the Oceanside and has since won the La Jolla Handicap, the second leg of the 3-year-old grass series that ends with the Derby. He is expected to be the heavy favorite in Monday's 52nd running of the Grade II, $300,000 Del Mar Derby.

SHORE LINES -- Jockey Laffit Pincay, Jr. got one victory closer to tying Del Mar all-time win leader Bill Shoemaker when he guided Oughtabeinpictures to the winner's circle in Thursday's fourth race. Pincay now has 885 wins in his 22nd season at Del Mar, four away from Shoemaker's 889, compiled over 26 seasons. ... Kent Desormeaux tightened this season's race for jockey honors with one victory Thursday while Alex Solis was winless, leaving Solis in the lead by only 31-29. ...Making a big jump in the standings Thursday with two victories was jockey Corey Black. Black, having perhaps his best Del Mar meet ever, posted two scores and leap-frogged over suspended rider Corey Nakatani into sixth place with 15 victories. ... Jockey Patrick Valenzuela, who is serving a five-day suspension, is honeymooning with his wife, the former Kim Reed, in Durango, CO, where they are visiting with his three children who live there with their mother. ... David Flores, who was injured in a spill at Del Mar August 1 and was expected to be on the shelve six to eight weeks, is scheduled to be exercising horses at the seaside track Saturday in preparation for riding Robert Moreno's Ready to Order Monday in the $125,000 guaranteed California Turf Championship at a mile at Bay Meadows. ... Rocking Chair Derby rider Alex Maese, a spry 68 these days, sounded this warning this morning to his "Rocking Chair" adversaries: "I'm ready now. I worked a horse six furlongs breaking from the gate this week. I'm really ready." The Rocking Chair Derby will be run Saturday, September 6. ... Picture this: Del Mar jockeys will be available for a time prior to the races Saturday through Monday for the annual Jockey Photo Days in the track's Plaza de Mexico area just inside the Grandstand main gate. The photo sessions will run from noon to 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. on Monday.

TODAY'S SIMULCAST STAKES -- Saratoga: Spinaway (I).